Justa's Food Storage Experiments

[JustAPrepper]

I got what appears to be a really good Food Storage cookbook while we were in Salt Lake (Jan's Fabulous Food Storage Recipes). Most FS cookbooks still call for chopping fresh produce or using all kinds of readily available products like cheese, sour cream, butter, etc. This book actually calls for almost 100% Freeze Dried and/or Dehydrated foods and will give me the opportunity to start testing things further and not doing so many experiments on my own and possibly wasting stuff. There's still a few things I need to track down and purchase to make several of the recipes but I have enough on hand to get me started. I've done a lot of experimenting but not so much with our Freeze Dried stuff so I'm excited to get started and thought I'd start this thread to chronicle my adventures.

This is NOT one of her recipes. This is one of my old standby's, Sour Cream Chicken, that I converted last night to a Food Storage recipe. It has a homey, pot pie kind of flavor and normally I can whip this up in about 10 minutes. Last night it took me almost two hours because I was making things up as I went and cooking with deydrated foods takes longer because of rehydrating and uses a lot more dishes so a lot more clean up.

6 Cups Water
1/4 Cup Dehydrated Carrots
1/4 Cup Freeze Dried Peas
1/2 Cup Freeze Dried Green Beans
~8 ounces Canned Chicken
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/4 Cup Sour Cream Powder
1 Cup Water*
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Box Stuffing - PREPARED according to directions but substituting 3 Tablespoons Butter Powder in place of fresh butter (box may call for 4 Tablespoons, I found this to be a little too rich so I'm backing it off a bit to 3 of the Powder)

Heat oven to 350.

Bring the six cups of water to boil. Dump in the carrots, peas and green beans. Turn off heat and let vegetables rehydrate for ten minutes. Drain.

Dump chicken in baking dish, *reserving juice from jar/can. Break up with fork. Lightly toss in vegetables.

In a medium bowl, mix Sour Cream Powder with juice from chicken jar/can and adding enough water, if needed, to make one cup. Stir in soup. Add mixture to chicken and veggies. Top with prepared Stuffing Mix. Bake 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

We were both totally impressed with this and neither of us could tell that I hadn't used fresh ingredients. It's a keeper. :) Unfortunately, our indoor lighting sucks so pictures taken at night always have this yellow hue to them. The food actually looked much better.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/103011SOURCREAMCHICKEN1.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/103011SOURCREAMCHICKEN2.jpg

[bacpacker]

Justa you are making me hungry and I just finished eating. That sounds really good. We cook meals like that quite a bit. We'll have to get some dehydrated stuff.
I will be looking for that cookbook as well and try it out. One of our favorites is "Cooking from home storage" by Vickie Tate. It has a section on dehydrated, but most of it is more old time receipes.

[sidewinder]

We need cook books that use open fire or wood burning stoves. Caveman cooking..

Has anyone seen one like that? The dehydrated food cook books ...do many still assume you will have electricity and access to farm animals for eggs and chicken and milk and hamburger?

Dehydrated food recipes that get primative...would be helpful.

The time involved and the clean up needs to be taken into consideration.

[bacpacker]

I just got the Foxfire receipe cookbook Saturday. Haven't had the chance to go thru it yet, but i feel sure it was written from the point of view of a wood stove. We have some others that have the old timey receipes as well.

I see no reason dehydrated or freeze dried cant be used in that type cooking you just need to soak them first, like dried pinto beans. Not a big deal.

[Sniper-T]

Sounds intersting Justa... Will have to keep an eye out for that one!

I have a creamed chicken dish like that dehydrated as a full meal.

I'll definately have to start storing more of the powders.

Thanks for posting

[JustAPrepper]

We need cook books that use open fire or wood burning stoves. Caveman cooking..

Has anyone seen one like that? The dehydrated food cook books ...do many still assume you will have electricity and access to farm animals for eggs and chicken and milk and hamburger?

Dehydrated food recipes that get primative...would be helpful.

The time involved and the clean up needs to be taken into consideration.


If by "caveman cooking" you mean over an open fire, I think most any recipe could be done that way. There's all kinds of things that can be cooked in Dutch Ovens, even breads, as well as cooking over the fire if you have a stick or a grate. If you can't find a specific cookbook or online recipes start experimenting now a few of your favorites or some things that you would consider "basic" foods that you feel you'll need during an event, regardless of what or how long that event is.

As for electricity, farm animals, eggs, and the rest you mentioned...We don't need electricity. We have a Solar Oven that I can use to cook and bake with as well as a thing I made that I've dubbed a Solar "Cooker". I haven't been able to get it hot enough to bake with (yet) but it definitely gets things hot. I can use the Oven to bake a loaf of bread everyday (weather permitting) and heat with the other. In addition to our garden, our food stores are "layered" with what we consider Short Term and Long Term supplies including Grains, Dehydrated/Freeze Dried, Home Canned Meats and Dairy. We also have a free flowing well so as long as it doesn't go dry, we'll have water to cook and clean with.

[JustAPrepper]

Tried another one today...Whole Wheat English Muffins. This recipe is based on one in the cookbook but needed to be modified along the way due to screwy and incomplete instructions and some changes I thought were necessary. If you look closely at the pictures of the Second Rise, you can see some variations in the Muffin color and size. The end result was good but I think my modifications will make them even better. Here's my version. Remember, this is based on 100% Whole Wheat (I used Soft White for this). If you use All Purpose or another type flour I'm not sure how they will turn out.

1 Tablespoon Oil

1/4 Cup Warm Water
2 Teaspoons Instant Dry Yeast

1/3 Cup Milk Powder
1 Cup Water

1 Tablespoon Whole Egg Powder
2 Tablespoons Water

3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour, plus 1/4-1/2 Cup reserved
1 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Oil
1 Tablespoon Honey

1/4 Cup Cornmeal


First thing I had to do was grind some more wheat. We have a Family Grain Mill and splurged for the Kitchen Aid Motor Attachment to make life easier before SHTF. :p

Use the first Tablespoon of oil to rub in a large bowl, set aside.

In a small bowl combine the 1/4 Cup Warm Water with the Yeast.

In another bowl or measuring cup, combine the Milk Powder with the 1 Cup Water.

In another small bowl combine the Whole Egg Powder with the 2 Tablespoons Water.

In a large bowl stir or whisk the flour and salt. Add Oil, Honey, Milk mixture and Egg mixture and combine. Stir in Yeast and Water mixture.

This dough is extremely "wet", almost like a sponge. Sprinkle a small amount of reserved flour on a board and start to roll around on your board. Continue adding flour only to the point where you can move the dough around without it being too sloppy but still maintains a wet consistency. Knead or roll around for 10-15 minutes, until the dough starts to become elastic. Place in oiled bowl, cover and set in a warm place to rise until double in size (mine took 2.5 hours).

Sprinkle some Cornmeal on a plate.

Sprinkle a little bit more flour on board. When dough has doubled, carefully remove dough from bowl and knead very lightly for a couple of minutes (2-3 at the most). Pat dough down with hands until it's about 1/2" thick. Cut in to 3" rounds using a cookie cutter or juice glass. Carefully dredge both sides of Muffins through Corn Meal and place on a baking sheet. Carefully roll up remaining dough and continue process until no dough remains. Let Muffins rise slightly for another 20-30 minutes.

Heat a skillet over Medium Low to Medium Heat. Carefully place Muffins in skillet and cook on both sides, flipping often, until tops and bottoms begin to brown and the outer edges are no longer sticky to the touch. Remove to a cooling rack. When cool, eat, toast, refrigerate or freeze.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111GRINDINGWHEAT.jpg

After the first knead...still very wet
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111ENGLISHMUFFINS1.jpg

After the first rise...
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111ENGLISHMUFFINS2.jpg

After the second rise...
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111ENGLISHMUFFINS3.jpg

[JustAPrepper]

Last two...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111ENGLISHMUFFINS4.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111ENGLISHMUFFINS6.jpg

YUM!! :)

[bacpacker]

There you go again.
:)

[JustAPrepper]

There you go again.
:)

I can't help myself. My mother always told me not to play with my food but I was a rebel. :p

[JustAPrepper]

I Totally Forgot!!

I put together another experiment today while I was waiting for the Muffins to rise!

It's called Magic Mix. This recipe comes from the girls at Everyday Food Storage and was developed by Utah State University. I've had the recipe forever but never got around to making it in batch form because I just make my own on an as needed basis. Basically, it's a pre-made dry Roux for making gravies, soups and a thickening agent for sauces (like cheese sauce). This new cookbook I have has many recipes that calls for "White Soup Base". I'm guessing what she means is a pre-made thickening agent or Roux and thought Magic Mix would do the trick so I whipped some up today. I haven't tested it yet but I doubt it will fail.

The recipe from the girls at Everday Food Storage calls for All Purpose Flour and they are specific about it but I've been using Whole Wheat ever since we started grinding our own. It will cook, possibly burn if you don't watch it, a little faster than AP Flour because the Whole Wheat has all the oil and bran in it. It will also make gravies a little darker in color, especially if you're making a Milk Gravy but it doesn't change the flavor much, just a little "earthier" because you're using Whole Grain instead of milled and processed flour.

2 1/3 Cup Powdered Milk
1 Cup Flour
1 Cup Butter*

*As for the Butter, I used the real deal but I've read several reviews and comments that people have used Powdered Butter with excellent results. I thought I would start with the real stuff first and if I like it, try Powdered next time.

It needs to be refrigerated because of the Butter so I made it and put in Quart jars then put in the fridge for when I need it. This is what it looked like after I mixed it up...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh140/Julie-Girl/MISC%20SHTF%20PHOTOS/110111MAGICMIX1.jpg

I'll let you know how it works, and tastes, when I test it. :)